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GIMP Stroke Path with Taper Plugin - Help Needed

I searched through the forums for a good taper plug in and tried both RobA's and ijontichy's. I "installed" both and tried out both and get the same error when trying to use them:

Error while executing tapered_stroke_along_path:

Error: Procedure execution of gimp-vectors-get-strokes failed on invalid input arguments: Procedure 'gimp-vectors-get-strokes' has been called with value '-1' for argument 'vectors' (#1, type GimpVectorsID). This value is out of range.

I was wondering if anyone else ran into this problem as well? If so, how did you work around it as these tools are quite amazing and I think they would make my rivers look quite good.

I find Inkscape is a better tool for this sort of thing than The GIMP. But you don't need a plugin, just use the "Emulate Bruch Dynamics" option for the Stroke Path dialogue, and link velocity to brush size on the tool you use to stroke.

Thanks. Ideally I would like to use the plug-in as I don't have a tablet, so its hard to use velocity to emulate brush size with a mouse (I have tried this multiple time prior to posting the OP). I have also tried inkscape and well... it gives me headaches to put it lightly lol (even when following the tapering tutorial). Thanks though, maybe i just need more inkscape practice.

Thanks. Ideally I would like to use the plug-in as I don't have a tablet, so its hard to use velocity to emulate brush size with a mouse (I have tried this multiple time prior to posting the OP).

That's what using "Emulate Stroke Dynamics" is for. It fakes the velocity part when stroking a path. In particular, it increases the velocity as you move along the path.

I have also tried inkscape and well... it gives me headaches to put it lightly lol (even when following the tapering tutorial). Thanks though, maybe i just need more inkscape practice.

There are some very good built in tutorials under the help menu. The actual process of working with paths in Inkscape isn't all that different from paths in The GIMP as both are based on Bezier Splines. Inkscape just has a nicer interface for path editing, and can do "live" path effects.